


Fire and Ice

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Wonder Woman (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Diana is a BAMF, F/F, I Don't Even Know, I think it came out ok, I wanted a goddamn femslash ship out of this movie, Isabel is a Grumpy Cat, because she was terrible in canon, but not necessarily evil, but that doesn't show up too much, im not sure how to tag this, just read it, so I god damn made one, so she's a grumpy asshole, technically they're in college, the hardest part of this thing was keeping Poison in character, without making her straight up evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 04:20:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11176899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Isabel had always been drawn to fire, enchanted by the way it destroyed everything in it’s path, enthused by the way it made no apologies for its destruction. Diana was a fire, she realized, but she did more than destroy what was in her path. She gave warmth and light, but she did not dare let anyone take more than what they needed from her. She burned bright, but not to harm, and she removed what was in her path but not through destruction.Diana was everything she had spent her life looking for and she was so much more than she ever expected her to be. Fire, Isabel learns, was far more complicated than she ever gave it credit for and she wanted to learn.





	Fire and Ice

Isabel Maru was used to being alone and she preferred it most of the time. People are selfish and cruel, she'd know given that she was too. She preferred to spend time in her lab working on her cures not that they worked. Her colleagues liked to poke fun at her for her failure, nicknaming her 'Doctor Poison' because she kept killing her mice. It wasn't as if she meant to, her formula just needed work and once she broke through she'd go down in history. Once she stopped killing the mice she could also go into the area of chemistry that she wanted to- weaponproduction. She was far better at killing things than curing them. 

It was safe to say she had no interest in anything but her work but life had a strange way of toying with her plans. She had been in the lab late and she was tired as she headed to her car, annoyed that her mice died once again when she literally runs into Diana. She makes a surprised noise and steps back and Isabel waits for the horror that usually came when someone saw her face but it didn't come. "Sorry," the mystery woman says, offering her a small smile and none of the usual fear or disgust she got due to her scar. 

"It was my fault, I wasn't watching where I was going," she says, her German accent coming through due to her being sleep deprived. Usually she managed to fake an American accent well. People didn't make nazi jokes if she did that. 

"Nonsense, neither was I. Are you alright?" The other woman asks, reaching out and just holding back from touching her but not, Isabel thinks, because she's afraid to. More like she considered that Isabel wouldn't welcome the touch. Hmm. 

"I'm fine," she says in too rude a tone considering this woman was being polite and patient. She's never been good with people though and she had no desire to learn, even if this woman looked as if she was fashioned by the gods themselves. Maybe even _because_ she looked as if she were made by gods. Isabel prided herself on not caring what others thought of her but there were some things that were unavoidable, like being jealous that this woman's face was perfect while hers was ruined. Lab accident gone wrong and people treated her far differently now that her face was not as pretty as it was. Things were both easier and harder than. 

The mystery woman frowns a little and tilts her head to the side, “are you sure? You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“My sleeping patterns are none of your business,” she says briskly, “I have work to do and sometimes that means I have to make sacrifices.” Her PhD supervisor Dr. Ludendorff told her that she shouldn’t work so hard, that her formula would come to her when it was ready to and that a good night’s sleep was important but she was not intent on following his instructions. She would work on her formulas until her mice lived. 

This gets her a raised eyebrow but the woman doesn’t say anything about her abruptness or her rudeness, she just smiles like it doesn’t affect her at all. It annoys Isabel. “Well, good luck on whatever it is you’re working on,” she says and with that she walks off. Isabel watches her as she goes and she wishes she had the amount of grace that woman could move with. Most people would describer her ability to move around as ‘scuttling’ and she disliked that more than her scar. At least when she was beautiful people ignored that, but they didn’t do that anymore. Now it was like her scar caused her to move that way. She swore people used her disfigurement as a way to explain everything she did these days. Even her failure as a scientist was attributed to that damn scar.

*

Diana hadn’t anticipated Isabel in her life but that was likely because she was slightly less concerned with women now that she didn’t live in a village that was only comprised of women. Her village back home, Themyscira, had been all women and until she left for college in the United States she had never even _met_ a man. Steve Trevor had been the first man she met, the poor thing, and he had been drunk and naked at the time. They made fast friends though and he was patient in answering all of her stupid questions about men. For a brief time they even dated but it didn’t work out, not that it affected their relationship too much. She was grateful for it because Steve was good at grounding her when she needed it and he had introduced her to Etta and she was rather fond of the woman. It would have been awkward with her if things between her and Steve had ended on bad terms. 

She had been headed home from a study session with Etta when she had run into Isabel. They were taking a feminist theory course together and for fun they had invited Steve along to quiz them on their knowledge. He looked mostly uncomfortable but he took the invitation and quizzing well before they finally called it quits and decided to head home. Diana lived on the other side of campus while Etta and Steve lived across town so they had headed in different directions though Steve did offer to drive her home. She wasn’t far from her place though and driving that short of a distance was absurd so she set out walking. Etta had been worried about how late it was but Diana had no worries, her aunt trained her for years in self defense and it was a hobby of hers that she still engaged in frequently. She had no worries about being hurt on her way home, especially since she was mostly on campus for her walk. 

Being out so late she hadn’t anticipated running into anyone, especially not literally, but she must have been more tired than she thought. She apologizes to the woman she runs into and she’s struck by how _angry_ she looks. it doesn’t take long, though, to gather that the woman wasn’t mad at her per se, she just seemed like an angry and bitter person. Diana wondered why she was so bitter though, what happened to make her so suspicious? In the time they spoke Diana did her best to be accommodating but the woman’s walls went nowhere and she was surprised. Her mother always told her that kindness was the easiest and best way to get through to people but this woman didn’t respond to that at all. Some people didn’t, she knew, given that she spent a lot of time arguing with stubborn men who had no idea what women’s rights should look like but usually that was in a political arena. In daily life people were far less resistant. 

Eventually she makes her way home but she doesn’t forget about the woman she ran into in the parking lot. She doesn’t see her again for some time though, almost a month, but she recognizes her instantly. “Hello!” Diana says, walking over with a smile on her face. The woman looks behind her, seemingly confused and Diana frowns. “I’m talking to you,” she tells her, “I remember you from the parking lot when we ran into each other. Any success on whatever it was you were working on?” she asks, recalling their conversation. Etta, who was with her, looks standoffish and Diana wonders why. She was hardly a shy woman. 

“I… you remember that?” the woman asks, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. 

“Of course,” Diana tells her, “so? Any success?”

The woman glares at the ground for a moment, “no. And I am in danger of losing my funding.” 

Diana winces in sympathy. So she was a science student for sure then, which made sense given that Diana had been outside the chemistry labs when they ran into each other. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” she says confidently. 

The woman laughs harshly, “my colleagues call me ‘Dr. Poison’ because I keep killing the mice. I don’t think success is in the cards,” she says in a tone that was as harsh as her laugh. Beside her Etta shifts somewhat uncomfortably but Diana ignores it. She could walk away if she chose to. 

“Well i have faith that you’ll figure it out,” Diana tells her and she means it too, which only seems to make her companion more suspicious.

“Why would you have faith in someone you don’t know?” she asks. The scar on her face makes her frown look darker than it likely was or perhaps she really was in that bad of a mood. She seemed to favor the negative emotions. 

“You got into one of the most prestigious universities in this country and secured funding, clearly have talent,” Diana says. 

Those must have been the magic words because the woman brightens some and smiles just a little. It makes a big difference on her features and Diana decides that she likes it. “Thank you,” she says genuinely. 

“So what is it that you’re working on?” Diana asks, curious.

“I am working on a way to cure hepatitis C infections in those with a chronic condition. Fifteen to twenty percent of people infected can clear the virus themselves but the reasons why aren’t entirely clear. I’m working with the most common genotype of the virus because that is what the majority of people here are affected with. It would be useful in lowering the amount of liver transplants needed, which would do wonders for healthcare debt. But the mice keep dying,” She says, back to being annoyed. 

“Really? That is incredible! Would that mean that you’d be able to make a vaccine for it?” she asks. 

This seems to throw the woman off but she recovers quickly, “in theory yes. Mass immunity would be useful in preventing the most popular strains from spreading and may provide insights into how to deal with the other genotypes and subtypes,” she says. 

Diana nods along, impressed with her work. “Wow! That is impressive! I am Diana, by the way,” she says, extending her hand. 

For a moment the woman looks at her hand in confusion but she slowly extends her own hand, “Isabel,” she says, suspicion still written across her features. “What is it that you study?” she asks as she releases Diana’s hand. 

“I’m studying law, I specialize in human rights and women’s rights,” she says. 

Isabel raises an eyebrow, “why am I not surprised? Is that what you’re doing here?” she asks, gesturing around. 

Diana laughs, “yes, I am here for the protest. Or at least I would like to think I am given that I organized it,” she says. “Are you here for the protest?” she asks, not really thinking Isabel seemed like the protest type. 

“I am actually. Protests are not my scene but I dislike when people ignore science in favor of thinking whatever they want. The environment is changing, we should figure out why and how to change the impacts of the damages,” she says in a confident, swift tone. Well, Diana agreed with that. The environment is important given that they live in it, it was only fair to take care of it. 

“Diana!” someone calls and she turns to find Steve walking up to her and she smiles. 

“Hey!” she calls back, waving at him to come over. She turns to introduce Isabel but she’s already half turned away.

“I have to go,” she says quickly and she scurries off before Diana can say anything to her.

“Do you have any idea who that is?” Steve asks when he gets to her.

“No,” Etta answers for her, “she was too nice in my opinion,” she says primly, speaking for the first time since she ran into Isabel. Diana frowns because she saw no reason she _shouldn’t_ be nice. 

“Isabel, she said her name was,” Diana tells Steve. 

“Yeah, Isabel Maru. She’s a fucking _psycho_ ,” Steve says, getting that annoying overprotective look on his face. This was going to lead to an argument, she could feel it. 

She sighs, “one, that is a rude thing to call someone. Two, I have seen no evidence for any kind of mental instability nor do I see any reason for you two to be treating her like some kind of plague,” she says to Etta and Steve both. 

“I have friends in her classes, they’ve read her notebooks. Just trust me Diana, stay away from her, she’s _nuts_ ,” Steve says. They argue about it back and forth until Steve finally gives up, knowing that Diana wouldn’t be convinced of something she didn’t believe.

*

Isabel has never seen Diana before but after running into her in that parking lot it’s like she’s everywhere, taunting her. The next time they run into each other she’s attempting to pull a book down from a shelf much taller than her but she’s not having much success. Someone reaches above her head and pulls the book down and Isabel turns to find Diana smiling at her and holding out a book. She takes it suspiciously, not knowing why Diana kept popping up in her life and sort of wishing it would stop. She had no time for distractions like Diana, as pretty and brilliant as she was. She stayed at that protest, listened to Diana’s speech. 

With a voice like that, with _convictions_ like that Diana could change the world. Already had according to Isabel’s research. Diana volunteered, worked pro bono on human rights cases even though she was only a student, she even worked with the local indigenous peoples on their own human rights struggles. She was an impressive woman to say the least. And Isabel has always ad something of a weakness for impressive women, but they usually didn’t share her affections. All the better for her, she didn’t need them or anyone else when she had so much research to do. 

“Thank you,” she says quietly, hoping Diana would go so she could work in peace. 

“You’re welcome,” Diana says in her perpetually bright tone. “Do you have an interest chemical warfare?” she asks, head tilted to the side. 

Isabel considers lying or maybe telling a half truth but she shrugs and goes with the truth. “I do. I never wanted to work on cures, I wanted to work on weapons but people are afraid of the things i can create.” Her classmates likely came up with her nickname after they got ahold of her journal. She thinks that they thing that she is purposefully poisoning her mice but she is not as stupid as they think she is. 

A confused look crosses Diana’s features and its the ugliest Isabel has seen her face and even then she is still stunning. “Why would you want to make _weapons_? I certainly hope weapons that don’t look anything like _that_ ,” Diana says, pointing at her book. 

Isabel looks down at the book that detailed the creation and uses of mustard gas and laughs, “of course not, the things I have an interest in are far more deadly than this,” she says almost flippantly. 

It was the wrong thing to say because Diana looks horrified. “ _Why_?” she asks, a vague look of disgust on her face. 

“Because it is what I am good at. I am sure you have heard,” she sneers, knowing her reputation around this school. Useless children, squabbling about things they did not understand. 

“I’ve done my research on you, you are _brilliant_ , why on _earth_ would you waste your talent on death? Of course you’re good at killing things, it isn’t difficult to hurt people! Curing them, _helping_ them, _that_ is work,” Diana says, her voice adopting that righteous tone it had at that protest when she talked about the environment. 

“Helping people is useless, we are not a species meant to last. I like the challenge of making things that will harm, but only the people it is meant to. Besides, making weapons does not ensure people will use them. They do that on their own,” she points out. People were naturally violent, nasty, evil creatures. She was doing nothing that would make any of that worse. 

Diana lets out a harsh laugh, a noise Isabel would not have thought her capable of. “Killing is not a challenge, it is simple, poisons are _easy_. If you truly wanted to challenge yourself you would cure your mice, you have already proven that killing them is of no difficulty at all. You simply make excuses for yourself because you don’t like failure,” she says. 

“You know nothing about me, how could you know that!” Isabel says far too loudly for a library. Nearby someone glares but they look away fast when Diana turns that righteous anger on them. 

“I know that because you are upset about the mice, you’ve mentioned them more than once. if you had any inclination to challenge yourself you wouldn’t have any interest in _weapons_ ,” Diana says in a harsh tone and with that she stomps off. Somehow she does this without looking like a child and Isabel feels… guilty. 

*

She goes back to her lab intent on proving Diana wrong- the mice were never meant to be cured, her formulas were all wrong. She didn’t even have an interest in hepatitis C. But as she looks over her formula she gets an idea and goes back to her notes to one of her original formulas, digging up her notes on those mice while she was at it. 

By the end of the night she thinks she has made a breakthrough. 

*

Diana had no idea why she had been so upset at Isabel, why she cared at all. Well, that was only half true. She disliked war, always had, and saw battle as something that should only happen if it needed to. Violence had its place, but it was only to be used as a last resort. Weapons were something she had for more contempt for. 

Something must have happened the last time she came in contact with Isabel though, something must have occurred to her because she makes a breakthrough and the whole world was watching. Her interviews are awkward because she was not used to nor did she like the attention she was getting, but when she talked science her voice was clear and confident. It was the only time she didn’t look like she wanted to run away and that passion in her eyes made people want more of it, but they didn’t seem to know how to get her to do that. 

She was more than a little surprised when she is watching an interview on the school’s news channel and Isabel cites _Diana_ as inspiration. The person doing the interview was clearly surprised too. “Diana _Prince_?” she asks, frowning. 

“Yes, what other Diana did you think would be any sort of inspiring?” Isabel snaps. Diana laughs, shaking her head at Isabel’s obvious annoyance. 

Steve gives her a look, “what the hell did you do?” he asks her. Diana shrugs because she had no idea. 

The interviewer obviously had the same question because she asks Isabel what she means. “I ran into her in the library and told her about my interest in weapons, specifically chemical weapons. She told me killing was easy, that it was helping people that was difficult. I was intent on proving her wrong, or maybe I wanted to prove myself right. Either way I wanted to show someone that curing things was not the challenge Diana claimed it was, that my own interests were just as difficult as any cure could be. I was wrong though, if I want a challenge poisons are easy. This was not,” she says more to herself than to the person interviewing her. She seemed confused on this too, like this had never occurred to her before now. 

“Wow. You told her off and she found some kind of cure to hep C?” Steve asks, shaking his head. “Only you, honestly.”

“I had no idea. I just hold a lot of contempt for people that would purposefully hurt others for any reason,” she says. 

*

Isabel gets more funding and more wiggle room in her research even if it isn’t much but her breakthrough stops where it started. There was nothing more for her to find, or at least that’s what her research was telling her. She slams down her pen for probably the tenth time that day and gives up for the time being. She had better things to do than rack her brain over _hepatitis C_ for more time than strictly necessary. 

So she leaves the labs to wander aimlessly before going home. Sometimes the fresh air helped her think but all that comes to her is more ideas for weapons. They were easy for her just like Diana said, she was good at hurting people. She’s always had a talent for it. She doesn’t expect to run into Diana as she makes her way back to the parking lot to her car but Diana smiles at her, seemingly in a better mood than the last time they ran into each other. 

“Congratulations on the mice,” she says, sounding like she was genuinely pleased with that. 

“Thank you,” she says. “Now if I could find _more_ that would be nice but I am at an impasse.” She crosses her arms and glares forward at no one in particular. 

Diana contemplates this for a long few moments before she sighs, “well seems how you haven’t found anything new do you want to help me with a project?” she asks. 

Isabel frowns, “what use could I possibly be to a lawyer?” she asks perhaps too harshly.

“I could use the company,” Diana says, smiling at her. Isabel resists the urge to look behind her to see if Diana was talking to someone else and after a few moments of quiet deliberation she agrees. 

She expects to learn nothing and do nothing but Diana had other ideas. She uses Isabel as a sounding board for her ideas and she quickly adopts the role of devils advocate though she had no real desire to argue against Diana’s ideas. They agreed on a lot though Diana was far more optimistic and far nicer than Isabel was. So she agreed that racism was unpleasant, but she had no faith that it would ever end. She had no illusions than any of the things Diana fought against would ever see an end. Humans naturally had a lot of conflict and nastiness towards each other, she saw no reason to involve herself in trying to fix that when equality would never be a reality. 

Diana finds her lack of faith almost fascinating unlike most, who were generally horrified with her. She isn’t at all intimidated by it though and she works harder to try and convince Isabel with her arguments, making more and more compelling arguments until Isabel begins to see her points. She even begins to see how Diana’s plans would work, how they could be applied in a real world context to make things better for marginalized populations and it takes her awhile to notice it. 

“i convinced you!” Diana says excitedly. 

“You have done no such thing, I simply see how your ideas could work,” Isabel tells her primly. “That does not mean I think they _will_ work.”

“Whatever you say, Bel,” Diana says, shocking Isabel with the nickname. No one has used that name since her accident, before that even. People did not associate a name of beauty with someone like her. Diana pays no attention and continues arguing her point, making notes as they argue back and forth. 

As they part ways something occurs to Isabel and she runs to the lab, eager to write her ideas down.

*

Diana was surprised at how well Isabel argued against her points considering she didn’t believe most of the arguments she was presenting. She had trouble arguing ideas she didn’t believe in but Isabel had no such reservations and Diana found that useful even if Steve insisted that he could do just as well. Even Etta outright told him she disagreed and she didn’t like Isabel anymore than Steve did. 

So when she runs into some problems with her research she tries to find Isabel. She needed someone to argue against her and Isabel was the best if her marks and speeches were anything to go by. With Isabel’s help she had an easier time seeing the other side and properly acknowledging the apposing opinion made her own arguments stronger. She didn’t like straw man arguments and she worked hard to properly take down her opponent so throughly that they did not recover, no, that they _could not_ recover. And she was good at it too, and with Isabel’s help she was even better at it. Even her best classmates had no interest in trying to argue against her now. 

The first place she looks is the labs, figuring Isabel would be there but she isn’t. None of her classmates seem to know where she is but Diana figured she’s check the library for her. That was one of the three places she’s seen her so it seemed like a good place to look. At first she doesn’t find her and she’s about to give up and try and find her elsewhere when she notices Isabel’s coat by a pile of books. Curiously she goes over, circling the pile of books to find Isabel behind them furiously taking notes in her book.

“Find something?” she asks and Isabel jumps, immediately glaring up at Diana. Diana just smiles down at her, not bothered by her apparent anger. She has learned by now that Isabel was just a naturally annoyed person. 

“I think so yes but I have to test it. Thankfully no mice will be involved so they get to live to see any other day,” she says in such a serious tone that it takes Diana a moment to realize it was a joke. 

She laughs finally though and she can see Isabel relax some. “Are you up for a break? I need someone to argue with me,” she says. 

Isabel looks as confused as she had the first time she asked her to help her out, like she was surprised that someone wanted to spend time with her. Diana wondered if human contact was really that alien to her.

“I… suppose I could spare some time,” she says slowly, testing out the words before she picks herself up off out of the chair she was hunched over in and stretches. 

“Thank you. How do you feel about immigration?” she asks. That was this week’s debate topic and Diana was thankfully on the pro immigration side. She wasn’t sure if she could argue against it given that she was an immigrant herself. Why she hadn’t been given the argument she wasn’t sure given that her teacher liked to press her limits but she was happy to have gotten the position she had. Etta hadn’t been so lucky and every time she worked on the debate assignment she looked at Diana with a guilty expression on her face. 

Isabel shrugs, “depends on the situation I suppose. Which side am I taking?” she asks. Diana tells her and Isabel adopts her position easily and quite brutally. Diana wonders as they argue if she was always that harsh or if this was something that she learned at some point. She liked to believe that people weren’t born as hard and suspicious as Isabel but her friends liked to tell her she was too optimistic, her mother too. Even her lovely aunt Antiope thought she was softer than she should be, that she should grow a thicker skin but she felt being soft in a world that demanded an iron shell showed more strength than adopting that hardened skin.

She argues back against Isabel valiantly though until she had backed her into a corner and Isabel’s arguments stop coming because she has run out of things to say. “You are exhausting,” Isabel tells her when they finally reach the end of their argument. “I have never met someone who could argue in such an impressive way. You managed to find a way to make every negative I had somehow positive, or to point out the hypocrisy in my arguments. If you do not win your debate I want to know who does so I can hire them when I am inevitably called a mad scientist.”

Diana, like the first time, takes a moment to realize Isabel was joking. “I’m sure no one will call you that,” Diana says and she means it. Isabel would hardly be the first scientist to make a mistake that killed mice. Though she felt rather bad for the mice that had suffered. 

“Dr. Poison is close enough,” Isabel points out. 

“Well you’ve reached a conclusion that saved your mice so I guess they can call you Dr. Successful,” Diana tells her with a bright smile. 

Isabel, surprisingly, looks suspicious at this. “Do you even _have_ a dark side?” she asks, “you are always so bright and I have no idea how… well, I suppose I do. Life must be easy looking the way you do.” She gives Diana a once over and for a moment envy crosses her features but it’s gone quickly, replaced by the usual storm of suspicion, dislike, and a shrewd look that suggested she was always watching for weakness. 

Diana raises an eyebrow, “you think being beautiful makes my life _easy_? I suppose I can see why, and in a lot of ways you’re right. But the beauty comes with a price. People expect things from you, they assume you owe them because the way you look makes them feel something and they ask for more than you can give and punish you when you fail to deliver. Make no mistake my beauty does _not_ make my life easier,” she says. People loved to look at her, but they rarely chose to listen because they didn’t care what she had to say. She was envied by those who wanted to look like her and sought after by those that were attracted to her. While people didn’t sneer at her for being unattractive, which certainly had its benefits, there were enough drawbacks to her looks that she often wished she was unattractive according to American standards. 

In Themyscira she hadn’t been abundantly desirable because she was more thin than muscular and she was the youngest and the least experienced. Attraction, to her people, was part of your skill level and being the youngest usually meant she had the least developed skills. She did eventually learn how to take care of herself and with her aunt’s training she also learned proper self defense but it had been slow going. In America, however, people stared at her everywhere she went, make unwelcome comments and sometimes even tried to touch her without her permission. This was not something that ever happened in Themyscira, at least not with the prevalence that it did elsewhere. Perhaps because self defense was a huge part of their culture, Diana thinks, they did not want to risk starting a fight with the person they touched _and_ everyone who took issue with your behavior. The few times she’s seen things like that happen it didn’t usually end well for the person who acted in an inappropriate way. Usually anyways. But that behavior was never directed towards her. 

Isabel laughs at her comment but it isn’t pretty. “Would you rather look like me?” she asks, her dark eyes showing that envy that was on her face before.

“Sometimes, if people exhaust me a lot that day,” she admits. 

“But not all the time?” she asks. 

“No,” Diana says, “because people use your looks as a pointed barb too. I hear the way people talk about you, how they point and whisper. Your looks are not without their consequences either, and they are not consequences anyone would want.” More than once she’s heard people link Isabel’s nickname- Dr. Poison- to he scar as if the two were connected. But her scar wasn’t a chemical burn, it was from fire. Diana knew because she was familiar with the way scars looked. How she ended up with a highly pattered scar from fire she had no idea but it was no one’s business but Isabel’s. 

“You wouldn’t want to look like me ever if you knew what it was like. You are built like a goddess, as if you were brought to life by the gods themselves. I look like a monster and people treat me as such,” she says in a harsh tone that she often had. 

Diana frowns, head tilted to the side. “Is that why you’re always more suspicious? Why you’re so… hard and closed off?” It was personal and she wasn’t owed a response but she had to wonder. 

Isabel gives her a searing look that was worthy of her classmate’s nickname but Diana knows it’s because she hit close to home and unlike the rest of the people who saw Isabel she was hardly frightened. She’s faced down people far worse than Isabel. 

“I act the way people expect me to and they have the gull to be surprised when I do. As if they would expect anything less,” she says in a disgusted tone. 

That makes Diana’s brows draw together, “so… you act the way people expect you to as a method of self defense? You think that being exactly what people expect you to be is some kind of strength? Like you have become the thing they think you are before they made you into that themselves? I don’t understand,” she says honestly.

“People will not allow me to be anything but a monster, I see no reason to disappoint them,” Isabel says curtly.

Diana shakes her head, “that is the most _absurd_ thing I have ever heard. You can’t use the spear people use against you as the shield you protect yourself with. If you want people to fear you, _truly_ fear you, than you will be everything they never saw coming, not the caricature they expect you to be.”

“Is that what you are, beautiful Diana?” Isabel asks, head tilted up defiantly.

Diana holds her head high, “I am. I am beautiful _and_ intelligent, strong _and_ emotional, compassionate _and_ merciless, a woman _and_ powerful. I have worked my entire life to make sure that people cannot pigeonhole me into the thing they want me to be because I have no desire to cower behind the person they assume I should be. I am who I am and I make no apologies for it. Perhaps you should try it before writing yourself off to societal expectations,” Diana says. 

Isabel looks away, her dark eyes swimming with ideas.

*

It was dangerous to think of anything but her work but Diana… she was just as impressive as the science Isabel tried to corral into something useful. She had always been drawn to fire, enchanted by the way it destroyed everything in it’s path, enthused by the way it made no apologies for its destruction. Diana was a fire, she realized, but she did more than destroy what was in her path. She gave warmth and light, but she did not dare let anyone take more than what they needed from her. She burned bright, but not to harm, and she removed what was in her path but not trough destruction. Diana was everything she had spent her life looking for and she was _so much_ more than she ever expected her to be. Fire, Isabel learns, was far more complicated than she ever gave it credit for and she wanted to learn.

Diana looks surprised when she finds her and her friend, the attractive one, looks suspicious of her. Isabel glares at him and he eventually looks away like they always did and she sits down, pleased that she won this little battle. “Yeah, I’ll see you later Diana,” the man says and he takes off. Isabel wonders where the pretty redhead they usually accompanied them was but dismisses is quickly. She didn’t matter. 

“Well this is a surprise,” Diana says, “what can I do for you, Bel?”

There was that nickname again, one that she hadn’t heard almost since she was a child. It makes her feel simultaneously pleased and annoyed to hear it again. “You are impressive Diana, you are _strong._ I want to know how to be strong too,” she admits, irritated with her own weakness. 

Her words obviously surprise Diana but she welcomes them easily and smiles. “You are not going to like my advice,” she warns. 

Isabel tips her head up, “I am willing to learn,” she says in an almost defiant tone. 

Diana smiles and it lights up the entire room when she does it, the whole room notices and they all turn to look. She was like a flame drawing in the moths but she did not burn them, she simply warmed them. But something told Isabel that she would burn them if they wandered too close like Icarus flying to the sun. He was not to fly too low, but if he flew too close he would burn and fall and that was what Diana was. She was the sun he wanted to reach, pulling him up but burning him if he climbed too high on himself. It was heady to watch. 

“Being strong means being vulnerable, Bel, and you are not willing to let that happen,” Diana says with confidence. 

“Of course I’m not. Weaknesses mean you can be exploited,” she points out. 

“They do,” Diana agrees, “but if you let people know your weaknesses you will know where they chose to hit you when they inevitably attack. Then you can make them pay for it,” she says, fire lighting up her eyes and Isabel leans forward in interest.

“Now you are speaking my language,” she says, smiling genuinely for the first time since long before she got this damned scar.

*

Isabel told her she was like fire with her passion and brightness, that she was both nurturing and destructive, but that her fire was controlled and confident in its path. If she was a fire though Isabel was ice. Everything about her was solid and her conditions were harsh and barren but all ice had something beneath it eventually. Isabel may not make things easy but there was something beneath the wintry air she carried around her at all times and Diana wanted to know what it was. 

Her passion for science was something Diana had already knew about so she starts there, drawing Isabel out of her shell somewhat by asking about subjects that interested her. She already knew that Isabel had an interest in weapons but she took a particular interest in gasses that was frankly terrifying and she told Isabel so. The admission had thrown Isabel for a loop but if Diana was to teach her how to be vulnerable she was going to have to lead by example so she admitted her fear. But she also told her that her weapons were meant for wars that had long since passed and that her efforts, her _brilliant_ efforts, would be best spent on science for the future. 

She expects Isabel to deflect, to insist that her weapons would be useful and Diana couldn’t argue that someone would use them. Wars were everywhere she knew, but she never wanted to see the day where Isabel’s thoughts became a reality. The world was complicated enough without her making it worse. “I’ve been doing research,” Isabel says, “trying to figure out where to go from here. My thesis is finally making progress so I can begin writing something more efficient than failure but I am not going to spend more time with hepatitis than I need to. I want something more… impactful.” 

Diana smiles, “well there is no shortage of bad things you can choose to work with,” she says.

Isabel nods, “I am well aware. I just need something that will hold my attentions.” Diana wondered what exactly could hold the attention of someone as openly cruel as Isabel could be, but she didn’t doubt that she would find something. 

*

She knew full well that she was not the kind of person anyone would want to spend time with. Isabel was mean, cruel even, and she was not afraid to lash out at those that hurt her or even those that she simply disliked. But Diana did not approve of that kind of behavior and she could argue better than anyone Isabel has ever met. She never won an argument and Diana had a knack for reading her well. It bothered her that Diana was so good at knowing her intentions and dissecting them with shocking accuracy. She was also good at formulating Isabel’s arguments and decimating them before they even formed. 

It left her no choice but to change her behavior because Diana was never wrong. It was not that she made no mistakes, Isabel eventually realizes, Diana simply knew to keep quiet until she knew she was correct. Then she would defend her stance until her opponent had no choice but to back down. She was fire destroying everything in her path but not mercilessly, and there were no bodies in her wake. Diana knew how to clear a path without burning everything she came into contact with and it was impressive to Isabel. It had never occurred to her before that fire could burn a path without destroying the things that it touched but watching Diana’s passion as she took on her debate opponents has taught her a thing or two. 

Isabel goes to all of Diana’s debates because she has never been able to resist watching a battle and Diana was oh so elegant in her ability to take on her opponents. She was always so graceful, certainly more graceful than the situation often called for and Isabel would have lashed out far more than Diana didn’t. No matter how nasty her opponent got Diana never faltered and she never stooped to her opponent’s level either. Isabel, she fought dirty because there was o honor in fighting and she would not pretend there was. But Diana brought honor not only to fighting, but to winning without having to cut her opponent down at the knees. 

“I told her once that a fight would never be fair and yet she surprises my by making a fight fair,” a women to her left says. Isabel looks over to find a beautiful blonde woman beside her and she can immediately see the resemblance. 

“She surprises me too. I could not hold my cool the way she does,” Isabel says, admitting the weakness freely. It was a small weakness but it was something. Besides, it was true. Isabel intended to hit where it hurt regardless of where it hurt or how much it hurt. The intent was to win, not to play games with the opponent until they could no longer try to hurt you. 

Diana took a completely different approach, combining her own values with Isabel’s policies. She certainly fought dirty, but not in the way Isabel would have assumed she would. Instead of cutting down her opponent she cut down their argument, slashing away at it until until there was nothing left, and then she continued slashing at arguments her opponent hadn’t thought of but she cuts them down before her opponent can think to use them. Eventually her opponent was left with nothing but personal attacks and that was when Diana made her final move, pointing out that if they had to resort to personal attacks they no longer had anything relevant to say. She was right of course but the way she went about it was simply stunning in its nature. 

The woman to her left laughs, “you’re telling me. But Diana has always been good at holding her own. She used to argue with her mother all the time about learning how to fight, she wanted nothing to do with her daughter learning self defense, but Diana won. And snuck out almost every night to learn from me,” she says. 

Isabel imagines Diana as a child pointing all that passion and poise at her mother, arguing that she should learn self defense and laughs. It’s genuine and it surprises her but it was pleasant. She would have to ask Diana about that later.

*

When she is done with her debate she is surprised to find her aunt Antiope there talking to Isabel. They seemed to be in a deep conversation and when she gets close enough she finds them bonding over the best way to kill an opponent. She snorts and shakes her head, “neither one of you will ever have a chance to test your theories. It’s best to call it a draw,” she tells them, effectively ending the argument because they both take an immediate interest in her. 

“You did well. Your mother would be proud,” Anitope says, nodding at her with an obvious note of pride in her voice. 

“I would have punched that moron in the face,” Isabel says and Diana bursts out laughing, surprising Isabel with it. 

‘Would you really?” Diana asks, wondering how serious Isabel was.

She shrugs, “if I managed to wander close enough. I might just try now on principal,” she says and this time when she tells the joke the pitch of her voice is right. The tone is just light enough for Diana and Antiope to catch the comedic undertones and they laugh.

“I’ll hold him,” Antiope offers and Diana shakes her head at the two of them.

*

Antiope hadn’t had much of a chance to see her niece date on Themyscira because she had been so young ad she had been surprised to hear about Steve. From what she knew he was nice enough but she wondered if he had been good enough for her niece. She wondered about this new one too, Isabel. 

She was cold, closed off, Antiope could see it even before she talked to the woman. She was strong though, and her culture valued that. She was still unsure about her but she knew Diana was more than capable enough of making her own decisions. She’s a grown woman and a fine one at that. Regardless of her sister’s worries Antiope knew that Diana had adjusted to the world of men well, and she took on her new subordinate position with a challenge to anyone who genuinely believed she or anyone else was lesser. 

Diana has always disliked inequality, protesting anything she deemed unjust when she was on Themyscria and she did the same here. Just like when she was in her home country she did a good job making headway and people always looked in her direction. Some did it out of fear, or envy, or they were impressed. Isabel, Antiope notices, looks at Diana like she is the sun and she had a healthy respect for the kind of love and pain Diana had to offer. That was all Antiope needed to see to know that Diana had not made a mistake.

*

Her friends still didn’t approve of Isabel whatsoever but they knew better than to question Diana’s position on her. They were no better at arguing with her than Isabel was so they just accepted that they were going to have to deal with her. 

“I still think she’s creepy,” Steve mumbles at her, eyeing the door Isabel was to walk through at any moment.

“Well she thinks you’re a pretty boy who belongs in a band, not a plane,” Diana tells him. Etta snorts and starts laughing at that and Steve gives her an unimpressed look. 

“I’m a great pilot!” he says in his own defense. In his defense he wasn’t wrong, he had a talent with the machines and he looked good in aviators. Diana still could not believe that Steve had decided to become a pilot just because he looked good in aviators. It was an absurd plan but he said it was either that or nothing and he already tried nothing. It seemed to be working well for him so at least it was going well. 

“Well I think that Diana is capable of making her own decisions even if they aren’t very good ones,” Etta says.

“Thank you,” Diana says, meaning it. She chose to ignore that the comment was backhanded because she knew it would make Etta feel bad and she was right at least because Etta looked guilty. It would, she hoped, prevent her from making comments like that in the future. 

Isabel arrives right on time and Steve and Etta leave quickly, offering their goodbyes as they all but shove Isabel back out the door with their haste to escape. “They hate me,” she notes as the door shuts behind her.

“They don’t really like you, no,” Diana says honestly. Isabel flinches but Diana shrugs, “what? I’m not going to lie to you.”

Isabel nods and some of the tension leaves her body with the comment. Isabel did not like lies or sugarcoating things, but she was also bad at handling criticisms and truthful statements. It wasn’t a very good combination but Diana made it work. “Thank you for that. You should choose friends with better taste though,” she says and Diana laughs.

“They like me, isn’t that taste enough?” she teases. 

It takes a moment but Isabel smiles just a little, “I suppose so,” she murmurs. 

“Well,” Diana says, stepping forward a little, “they don’t need to like you because I do,” she tells her, tipping Isabel’s head up some. Her eyes widen and Diana can almost see her walls fall back down but she wasn’t deterred. Isabel needed work and Diana has always enjoyed a challenge. So she kisses her softly, giving Isabel more than enough room to move if she needed to. 

She doesn’t but it takes her a second to lean into the kiss, to savor it. When she pulls back Diana brushes a strand of hair from her face and Isabel gasps. 

“You… touched my scar,” she says after a moment and Diana frowns.

“Is that… bad?” she asks, unsure how Isabel felt. She was good at keeping emotions that weren’t dislike, hatred, envy, or annoyance from her features. 

But now she lets a little bit of something else through, just for a moment, and she nods. “It is it’s just that people don’t usually… well they don’t usually touch _me_ let alone that.”

Diana shrugs, “in my culture scars are attractive,” she says simply. They were a sign of experience and personal growth and those things were attractive to her people. 

Isabel snorts, “Themyscira is strange,” she says. Diana laughs because yes, compared to the land of men it was indeed quite strange. 


End file.
